Party for the Animals


The Party for the Animals is a political party in the Netherlands. Among its main goals are animal rights and animal welfare. The PvdD was founded in 2002 as a single-issue party for animal rights, opposing animal cruelty and the treatment of animals in agriculture. The party then developed into a left-wing, ecological party.
Since 2019, the PvdD's political leader is Esther Ouwehand. With 2.08% of the votes at the 2025 general election, the PvdD holds three of the 150 House of Representatives's seats. In the Senate, it has three of the 75 seats. PvdD holds 26 States-Provincial seats across all provinces. In the European Parliament, it has one of the 31 seats allocated to the Netherlands constituency.

History

Founding

The First Balkenende cabinet was more hostile to animal welfare than the preceding Second Kok cabinet: it scrapped plans to ban mink farming, relaxed restrictions on hunting, and postponed regulations on factory farming. Cabinet party Pim Fortuyn List pushed for these changes; Lieke Keller, director of the anti-fur farming organisation , interpreted these acts as trying to "get even" with activists following the assassination of Pim Fortuyn by environmental and animal rights activist Volkert van der Graaf. Despite their past support for animal welfare, GroenLinks and the Socialist Party did not vocally oppose the cabinet's animal policy. The cabinet was described as having rolled back 20 years of animal welfare progress. When a snap election was announced on 21 October 2002, Keller spoke with her colleague Marianne Thieme and suggested starting a party dedicated to animal rights. Thieme responded that she didn't believe in single-issue parties, but changed her mind on 24 October during a protest against seal hunting: "It's about an entire group of inhabitants being ignored, that's not a single issue". Thus, the Party for the Animals was founded and registered on 28 October 2002. The media did not pay attention to this, as it was focused on the LPF's internal struggles.
In the lead-up to the 2003 Dutch general election, the party faced the challenge of selecting a suitable lead candidate. While co-founder Lieke Keller was a natural candidate to lead, her existing role as director of Bont voor Dieren, and her extensive political contacts, made her unsuitable for front-line candidacy. To preserve ongoing lobbying efforts, Keller stepped back, and her colleague Marianne Thieme—a relatively unknown but committed figure—was selected as spokesperson. The party initially sought a celebrity to head the electoral list, but when this proved unfeasible, Thieme was put forward. Some founders saw the effort as a publicity stunt rather than a serious political bid. Niko Koffeman, who had previously overseen campaigns for the Socialist Party, nonetheless took an active role, shaping the party's program and advising on media outreach. As media attention grew, notably following an interview in Het Parool on 6 December 2002, Thieme's public profile grew. The campaign relied on securing free publicity.
The PvdD's campaign focused on a cluster of settlements in South Holland: Leiden, Warmond, Voorschoten, Oegstgeest, Jacobswoude and Hillegom. Despite modest resources, the party secured several hundred members and operated on a total budget of €30,000—two-thirds of which came from hotelier Irene Visser. This was spent primarily on posters and flyers. However, an administrative error led to a significant setback: The PvdD's candidate list for Overijssel was submitted 40 minutes past the legal deadline, and although the documents had been faxed earlier, the Electoral Council and the Council of State both upheld the disqualification. As a result, the party was barred from competing in the province. Thieme criticized the ruling as excessively rigid and suggested that the presence of established parties within the Council of State might discourage political newcomers.
When votes were counted, the PvdD came just short of winning a parliamentary seat. Initial projections by most major media outlets showed the party below the threshold, though a Radio 1 forecast briefly placed it at one seat. Ultimately, the party received 47,754 votes—just 518 votes below the threshold for parliamentary representation. This narrow margin raised questions about whether participation in Overijssel might have altered the result. Despite the disappointment, the party issued a statement expressing optimism, noting that such voter support was achieved with minimal resources, media exposure, and preparation. Party officials framed the outcome as evidence of latent public backing for a political movement grounded in animal liberation. While the PvdD missed entering parliament, it nonetheless outperformed Livable Netherlands, which lost both its seats after securing just 38,856 votes.
Although initially considered a testimonial party, a party which does not seek to gain political power but to testify its beliefs and thereby influence other parties, the party signaled its willingness to enter a coalition government in 2021. The party today is a part of the governing coalitions in the municipalities of Almere, Arnhem and Groningen.

Electoral breakthrough

The electoral breakthrough for the PvdD occurred at the 2004 European elections. The party won 3.22% of the votes, not enough to win a seat, but a sharp improvement compared to their 2003 result. In 2006 the party won their first seats in the Tweede Kamer, with Marianne Thieme and Esther Ouwehand being elected to parliament. The party gained a lot of attention due to a number of prominent lijstduwers, such as Paul Cliteur, Maarten 't Hart, Kees van Kooten, Rudy Kousbroek, Georgina Verbaan and Jan Wolkers.
The Party won nine seats in eight provinces in the 2007 Dutch provincial elections, securing one seat in the Eerste Kamer. In 2010, the party won representation on the local councils of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht, Arnhem, Gouda, Vlagtwedde and Pijnacker-Nootdorp; this meant that the PvdD secured representation on every level of government in the Netherlands.
In consequent elections, the electoral support for the PvdD remained relatively stable, winning two seats in the Tweede Kamer in 2010 and 2012. In 2014, the party won representation to the European parliament and joined the European United Left-Nordic Green Left parliamentary group.
In 2017, the party gained its best result to date, winning five seats in the Tweede Kamer. On 16 July 2019 Femke Merel van Kooten split from the PvdD caucus and continued as an independent member of parliament. The reason for the split was that Van Kooten criticized the narrow political focus of the party, which in her opinion focused too much on ecology and animal rights.

Ouwehand leadership

On 8 October 2019, founder and longtime leader Marianne Thieme retired from the leadership and the Tweede Kamer. Esther Ouwehand succeeded Thieme as parliamentary leader, and Eva van Esch replaced her as a member of parliament. She was previously a city council woman in Utrecht.

Ideology

Their main aim is to improve the life of animals and nature as a whole. They see the constant emphasis on economic growth as one of the main reasons for the lack of animal rights and is to blame for the state that nature currently is in. They want animal rights to be enshrined in the constitution. It is firmly on the left side of the political spectrum, considered an either a left-wing or a far-left party. It has also been described as a radical left.
The party has also have widened its scope to more than just animal rights, for example sustainability, healthcare, housing and more. It also strives for a shorter workweek and for a universal basic income. The economical demands of the party include a "radical greening" of the economy.
The Party for the Animals opposes capitalism and calls for a different economic system; this is combined with the party's support of degrowth, writing: "growth does not bring the solution but the problems" and "growth is an untenable concept on a globe that does not grow with it." It was also described as socialist. The party fields anti-capitalist candidates, such as the radical economist Ewald Engelen, as well as Wesley Pechler, who calls for "an inclusive, green and anti-capitalist Groningen" on the party's website. Conversely, in its program, the party argues that the neoliberal economic policies are destructive and a "system change" is needed in order to build a more inclusive and equal society.
After joining the party, Engelen promoted the bioregionalist aspect of the party, writing: "the Party for the Animals is the only party that has the nerve to say that Amsterdam should shrink, instead of grow. The Party for the Animals is the only one that courageously resists the massive lobby of the coalition of the municipality, big business, Rai and Schiphol. All the others dance along to that seductive tune of growth, growth, growth." He also remarked: "Instead of fixing these marketing images in stone for eternity, we would do well to preserve what is characteristic of the Netherlands: its beautiful medium-sized provincial cities. Good for the quality of life, good for the air quality, good for animals and good for nature."
In regards to the European Union, the PvdD is considered soft Eurosceptic. It rejected the European Constitutional Treaty and the Treaty of Lisbon. Regarding the European Union, the party argues that "Europe is not a federal state and it is not desirable or necessary to strive for it". Its approach has been described as very similar to that of the Dutch Socialist Party; PvdD supports a "less Europe, less market" approach, stating that financial crises in the EU are abused to lead to "the further transfer of sovereignty to the European Commission" and to force a European federation on member states by claiming that it is a financial necessity. The party criticizes the European internal market, arguing that its liberalization has gone too far and proposing policies that would limit the market in favor of member states' financial sovereignty. The party also notes that that the EU only focuses on the financial aspect, forcing its members to reduce financial deficits but overlooking ecological abuse. Political scientists Simon Otjes and Gerrit Voerman write that the PvdD takes a far-left position on the EU, opposing it as a capitalist project.
Other proposals of the party include:
  • lowering the voting age to 16;
  • introducing direct democracy through establishment of regular consultative referendums;
  • shortened required notification period for protests and citizens' initiative;
  • strict ethical and privacy scrutiny to automatized or AI-based systems;
  • direction election of water boards instead of being chosen indirectly via municipal councils;
  • universal housing program.